Friday, July 28, 2006

Sugar High Friday #21 - Blackberry Semifreddo

Sarah from The Delicious Life decided on an icy theme for this month's Sugar High Friday as a way to beat the heat. Heat isn't really a problem here at the moment, maybe if you stand too close to the fireplace, then yes, I'll give you that. Just because it's winter doesn't mean we can't indulge in some frozen delights.

I decided to forgo the ice cream maker and use a different method and an unusual ingredient to make a semifreddo - after all, semifreddo doesn't sound nearly as cold as ice-cream.

The unusual ingredient is Sheep-milk Yoghurt - and it's used to make the Blackberry Semifreddo and the Sheep-milk custard that accompanies this creation.

Place the blackberries, icing sugar and yoghurt into a blender and process until smooth. Gently fold this into the whipped cream until mixed through. Pour this into a plastic-wrap lined shallow tin and place in the freezer until it begins to harden, between 1-2 hours.

Scoop the mixture back into the blender and process until smooth. Pour this into a plastic wrapped shallow tin and return to the freezer until completely set (6 hours or overnight).

The simplest way of using the semifreddo is to just cut it into thick slices and serve as is.

The dish I made for SHF consists of Filo Pastry discs sandwiching semifreddo cylinders and a fresh blackberry "jam" - it sits on a bed of Sheep-milk Yoghurt Custard and the hearts are made from blackberry juice.

Filo Pastry Discs

1 sheet Filo Pastry

melted butter

icing sugar

Lay out the sheet of filo and brush half with melted butter before dusting it with icing sugar. Fold in half and brush with butter and dust with icing sugar again. Fold again and repeat with butter/icing sugar, before folding one last time. Cut out the discs using the same size cutter that was used to form the semifreddo cylinders.

Cook in a preheated 180°C/350°F oven until lightly golden. If you prefer the discs to be perfectly flat then cover the discs with baking paper before weighing them down with another baking dish. You need to be really careful as they tend to cook a lot more quickly.

Blackberry "jam"

I took a handful of frozen blackberries and placed them in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of water, over a medium heat. Let them cook without boiling until the berries have softened, add a little icing sugar (to taste) and stir in, mashing the berries as you do. Cook this over a low heat until the mixture begins to thicken and looks syrupy. Cool before using.

Sheep-milk Yoghurt Custard

This was simply made by replacing milk with sheep-milk yoghurt in your favourite custard recipe.

Thanks so much Anna - I share your love of sheep's milk yoghurt - the best custard I've ever had is the sheep's milk custard served at Fenix, it's so creamy yet has that unique tang, it's an eye-opener - it has me looking for sheep's milk but so far I've yet to find it, the yoghurt has to do for now.

Haalo - I love the idea of creating semifreddo with blackberries! Interesting you use no egg whites too ... I shall have to play around with some ideas - and depart from the mascarpone, ricotta and egg white route! :)

Thanks Alex - this isn't very traditional but did give a creamy result - I think it could be better put through an ice cream maker - I'll probably be whipping something up with the leftovers when we get a sunnier day. Mascarpone and ricotta - I like the sound of that!

I've just discovered your blog and think its fabulous. This dessert especially looks absolutley gorgeous. One question - any suggestions on where to obtain sheep's milk yoghurt? (Which I am now really keen to try) Do you know if I can get it at the Vic Market?Thanks!

Welcome Lauren and thank you for such a lovely comment. Sheep's milk Yoghurt can be found in a few places now - a lot of the delis and some of the organic stores in Prahran Market stock it and I can only assume that you shouldn't have a problem finding it in the delis of Victoria Market. Leo's in Kew also stock quite a few different sheep's milk yoghurt too. The one I used for this was the Meredith Yoghurt and I've discovered I've been very slack and haven't yet done a post on it. Something I must rectify!